I’ve just spent a happy quarter of an hour deciding which version of this song to use, but this one – recorded live as recently as 2004 – is as spine-tingling as any. If I could sing like Maddy Prior I’d never do anything else.
Tag: Christmas
Advent song for December 2
I would have had this one last time around, but the official video is uncharitably protected by complicated copyright rules which mean I can’t embed it on the page. But while I was watching The Greatest Christmas Songs Ever last night (purely for research, you understand), I noticed that VH1 were showing this alternative, which is just as nice and freely available. Happy Christmas, Kyoko! Happy Christmas, Sean!
Advent song for December 1
This is a lovely song. The quality of this recording isn’t great, but it makes up for that with bags of charm. If the Christmas fairy were to grant me one wish, I might choose to be living in an age when primetime TV was given over to hour-long live performances by the popular singers of the day.
2009 advent calendar
I have pondered long and hard over whether to give this year’s advent calendar a theme or a twist to distinguish it from last year’s. I wondered about clips from my favourite musicals, or country and western Christmas songs, or just 24 Christmas songs by Ella Fitzgerald. But then I remembered how many favourites I had to leave out last year, and how agonizing it was choosing which ones to ditch, and I realised I would have more fun doing the same thing again than I would having to stick to a theme, or a meme, or any kind of scheme.
I promise not to include Mistletoe and Wine again. Not in the actual, official advent calendar, anyway. It’s still November, right?
A joke
Q. Why is Christmas the best time to buy philosophy books?
A. Because the Schopenhauers are longer.
(I apologise. That wasn’t in a cracker, but it could have been. One of the more upmarket sorts of cracker, perhaps.)
Advent song for December 24
I’ve enjoyed doing this so much, and there are so many songs I had to leave out, that I’m almost tempted just to keep going and make gladallover a 365-day-a-year Christmas music blog. But by January I’ll be feeling austere and spartan and bloated, so I’ll stick to tradition and bring it to a close today. I’ve spent quite a lot of time wondering which songs to include, but there was never any real doubt in my mind as to what today’s song would be, because it has my favourite Christmas pop video ever. There are so many good things about it that I shan’t point them all out, but I would like you to make a particular appreciation of Cliff’s dancing from 2’25” onwards. It’s really quite something. Also note the fake snow, which is almost as convincing as my own snow (which will no longer be visible if you’re reading this after January 3 2009).
Happy Christmas!
Advent update
Since I’m out of the country for a few days, I’m going to post songs from today through Monday today. You could watch them all today, but you’d only be cheating yourself.
Advent song for December 18
Watching this again sent shivers up my spine. I think we always used to watch The Snowman on Christmas Eve, so for me it’s inextricably tied up with the tingling excitement of waiting for Christmas Day. I’ve chosen the original version from the cartoon rather than Aled Jones’s slightly more famous version, because the cartoon is still great and I think everyone should watch it again. The little touches – the whale, the northern lights – really make it. Although I still don’t understand why they fly over Brighton, since they end up at the North Pole and you can’t possibly start south of Brighton if you live in England, which judging by his nightwear this little boy definitely does.
Advent song for December 17
I had no plans to include this song, but it popped into my head this morning and hasn’t left, so here it is. I don’t think I’d ever seen the video, but I like it very much because everybody in it seems so happy. Whatever you think about Paul and Linda, I think they were very much in love, and you can see it here. Also, I like that the “choir of children” is actually them. It reminds me of the story Paul told about auditioning children to voice the part of Rupert in the full-length video for We All Stand Together, and all of them were so rubbish that he ended up doing it himself.
Advent song for December 16
This is just lovely.
Glad All Over 